PORTRAITS OF ISTRA - Episode 26 - A SUNNY FUNGI AFTERNOON IN THE WOODS AROUND MOTOVUN

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Motovun is an old ...

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... still medieval - looking town ...

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... on one of the many hills in the northern part of the peninsula ...

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... a hill that looks a bit like some island that has lost its sea.

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I visited this region a month ago, in the first days of October ...

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... to enjoy the early signs of autumn ...

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... colors & biodiversity of the woods in that area ...

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... and to find some interesting mushrooms if I'm lucky.

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And lucky I was :D

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I don't know the name of this mushroom ... or anything else about it ... I never saw it before, actually - it doesn't grow in my area.

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This is how these mushrooms look when younger ... and on the following shot ...

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... you can see them at the very beginning of their development.

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Here is another portrait of this species ... taken with the flash on, in the shade of the trees.

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I patiently took also another shot with slow shutter speed to capture the atmosphere created by the natural light ... and although the light is nice, the mushroom disappears in its surroundings when photographed this way.

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The northern inland of Istra is considerably colder than the southern coastline where I live. The winters are here real continental winters and nights in autumn are pretty cold ...

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... so in spite of the fact that this was a comfortably sunny afternoon ...

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... I was still surprised by the amount of insect activity around the shrubs at the edge of the forest.

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This is the Cicadella viridis, a lovely leafhopper in shades of blue and green.

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This small black fly has some pretty long wings ... I don't know what species is this ... and I never saw it before.

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This is some weevil ... but I don't know exactly ...

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... what species is this. While this beetle was very quiet and easy to photograph ....

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... the small Heliophanus kochii wasn't an easy catch. This jumping spider was constantly running and jumping around.

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I took all these shots ...

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... in proximity of the small village called Livade ... which means Meadows.

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River called Mirna ... which means Quiet ... runs through the valley under Motovun ... and on these shots ...

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... you can see some side channels of that river.

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Even smaller, narrow channels trickle into the forest, running like capillaries ...

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... creating a rich, humid environment ...

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... in the forest ...

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... and some lovely, muddy places ...

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... ideal for mushrooms and other fungal formations.

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While I was photographing them ...

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... crouched in the mud ...

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... concentrated on close up details ...

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... the town on the hill was always in sight, giving a nice Medieval Fantasy touch to the overall atmosphere.

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The Orange fairy cups are the magic forest phenomenon I never encounter in my seaside area.
The magic of their intense orange color is best emphasized by the sparse natural light ... so I took some time and patience to take this relatively long exposure shot ... bat before that, I tried the easier way ...

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... with flash on and hand held camera ... but nope - it didn't work ... not good enough, at least.

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The Aleuria aurantia, presented on these photographs ...

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... called also the orange peel fungus or the orange fairy cup ...

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... it's a very decorative & colorful fungus ...

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... that really gives a breath of magic to the forest. This is an edible fungus ... nice to add a bit of color to some salads, ad example ... but isn't particularly tasty or distinctive ... so it definitely looks much better and has much more sense here in the forest than in some dish.

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Here is a very up close, macro look at one of those lovely little cups. Well, this one looks more like a dish or plate, actually.

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This mushroom has grown on the same clay soil, surrounded by
Aleuria aurantia.

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Various interesting herbaceous plants grew at the edge of the forest. This one has very large leaves ...

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... and this one interesting prickly seedcases, adapted to be dispersed by getting attached on fur of animals or human clothes. I dispersed quite a few on the day when these pictures were taken.

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Some areas were covered with blackberry shrubs ... and quite surprisingly for that time of the year, I found a few flowers on those shrubs.

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Helianthus decapetalus it's a tall plant ...

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... with beautiful flowers ... native to North America. But is quite common in Europe ... for quite a few centuries now.

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The flowers are produced during the late summer and early autumn ... and this, resting on the pretty large petal ...

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... ... is the Ophraella conferta ... another American species that feels at home in this area.

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These leaf beetles are leaving large holes on the leaves after their meals.

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This is the first time I noticed these beetles ... and learned about their American origins. Here I also have to say, that although I'm pretty sure about this species after a long Internet search, I'm not completely sure. I'm not an expert ... and I could be wrong about it.

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Here you can see a seed with two hooks and many short, sticky hairs ... another annoying, but very effective design ... meant to be dispersed by me. I had to go through hours of seeds removal from my clothes when I was back home. This thing fell from another plant on the Helianthus decapetalus leaf.

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This is another leaf beetle ... Chrysolina polita ... native to Europe.

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This spider ... I don't know the exact species ... has caught some hemipteran insect.

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I don't know the name of this plant ...

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... but it sure has some lovely, daisy - like composite flowers ...

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... a multitude of lovely, daisy - like composite flowers, actually. While quite a few things were in bloom down on the ground, creating the springtime atmosphere ...

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... upstairs, in the tree tops ...

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... the leaves have started to go through the seasonal change ...

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... and it was a beautiful thing to see ... in the warm light of the late afternoon.

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Back on the ground I found a green shield bug ... resting on the fallen leaf ... and then ...

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... I sat in the car, ready to drive back home.

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Very soon ... just a kilometer or so further ... I stopped to photograph this large tree cut in pieces ...

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... and then a few more kilometers further ...

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... when I passed Motovun ...

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... I made another stop ...

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... to photograph some colorful vineyards.

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Here I found a large cluster of Coprinellus micaceus ... so I took this shot with the flash ... and then ...

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... a few more shots ...

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... with natural light.

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I took one last look at the beautiful distant landscape ...

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... and after this last shot, drove away - THE END.

As always in these ramblings on HIVE, the photographs are my work.



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4 comments
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Beautiful nature there! So much diversity and lots of orange aliens! The hill without the sea does look unreal, floating alone out of time!
There’s so much mystery in this place!

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A fairly long journey but with excellent reward for you, in some photos you can see the street, the photographs of the insects are great, they can be seen perfectly up to the wings, the fungi, some look like umbrellas, there is a lot to see in your post and You are saying step by step, it is a form of tour, I liked it, thank you.

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